Day 11 - Paris

Paris Travel Blog

For being in a tiny, cramped, uncomfortable train car I slept extremely well, the other two. . .did not. With the lack of sleep I was worried the day wouldn't be nearly as fun if two thirds of the party were exhausted. But, the fact that we were minutes from Paris was enough to raise our spirits. We left the train station and grabbed the first map we could find and headed for the center of the city. After a ways we realized we were starving and dove into a small bakery. I honestly don't know what it is, but man can the French bake. Everything from the chocolate croissants to the pain de raisins was delicious and ridiculously cheap. We ate our fill and continued on.

It seemed like we became more and more lost the closer and closer we got to the main river.

Embassy

We did our best to read our map but surprisingly it was all in French, who would have guessed. When we got to the river we looked out and in the far distance could see the top of the Eiffel Tower. We were so amazed we almost missed on of the most important French Landmarks thirty yards behind us. I spun around and noticed that we were practically on the main steps of Notre Dame Cathedral. It was bigger and more beautiful than I imagined. We were tempted to go in but the forty pound packs on our backs didn't approve. Besides, we would be coming back tomorrow while our packs were safely in our hostel in Reims, a small town outside of Paris. We took our pictures of the church and moved on down the river.

Following along the river was picturesque.

Chris and the Eiffel Tower

Lined with giant buildings, embassies, museums, and monuments, we felt small in the city. The Eiffel tower was still in the distance but we were making progress. After a bit we stumbled across the sprawling Louvre Museum, but again the packs disagreed and we kept moving. Soon enough we were up to the base of the Eiffel Tower. I've seen as many pictures as anyone else of the tower, but it was so much larger at the base than I imagined. It looked like it took up an entire city block, each base leg the size of three houses. Unreal. Again we took plenty of pictures and with a long walk ahead, went back to the train station.

We got back with just enough time to catch our train to Reims. When we got there the city itself reminded us of a larger Caldwell. It just had that feel. After a bit of walking we found our hostel near the rivers edge and settled down for a well deserved rest. Cheers.